Why I Teach for America

Update on A., she left the hospital yesterday and was in class today! She said she was feeling fine – when I talked to her mom today she said it was low blood sugar and that it’s happened a few times before. So all is well!

I had THE most amazing day today! The class today was all review since tomorrow is our final exam, and though the kids were kind of rowdy, they had a lot of fun playing Jeopardy and got really into it. They really wanted those bonus points! The work they did was generally pretty good, though there are still things that mess them up every time (negative numbers anyone?). They were definitely invested today though!

This afternoon we had a review session at the burger place next to school after we finished with our TFA sessions. So at 4:30 about nine of our kids showed up - 9 out of 15! I was so excited. We got a lot of one-on-one time with them and bought them dinner. They did review work, re-did assessments, and did make-up work. They worked so hard; we planned on about two hours, thinking most of them would burn out before then. 7:30 rolled around and we had to send them home – some of them were walking and we didn’t want them walking in the dark, and we still had a 45 minute drive back to campus. I couldn’t believe they spent three hours of their day hanging out and doing math with us! By the end we were less productive with math and were just talking to them about their lives and what they want to do after graduation (and trying to plant the seeds of college plans…I have a future cop, journalist, and neonatal nurse), it was great! I found out one my kids’ brothers just got out of prison today, and one of my girls (who is an awesome student and hasn’t missed an assignment all summer) has an 8-month-old daughter – talk about challenging stereotypes I didn’t even know I had. We also had a conversation about a few probation officers (one of which we met today when she came to check on the whereabouts of one of the boys) and C., the one who is struggling and painfully shy, actually opened up to me and we had a real, long conversation! He wants to be a journalist and will talk to you a lot once he gets comfortable with you. I also got to meet a lot of parents as they were dropping kids off and picking them up, which was great. M. worked really hard today (as usual) and was just wonderful, we love that kid so much. He has a crush on this girl, N., in our class (who another boy in our class also does, and through teacher gossip we know she’s “dating” a guy in someone else’s class) and asked me if he should ask for her number. He also told me straight to my face that I was a role model. I could have cried! Then he ran across 4 lanes of traffic right in front of me, waving from the other side. I could have wrung his neck. I met N.’s dad, C.’s dad, A.’s, mom and another grandmother and of course, the PO. What a day. I think the kids will do pretty well tomorrow, though there are a few I am really anxious about.

Rebecca, Juli and I could not stop talking about them on the way back to ASU tonight, we felt like we got to know them so much better, they opened up to us, and even our “tough guys” came and did math and hung out with us. One of TFA’s favorite “ice breaker” activities is to go around in a circle and say why we teach for America. I’ve had a few different answers, but driving home today it was very clear to me that these kids, and all the rest that will also become “my kids”, are really the reason why I Teach for America.